Angel Beats!: Guardian Angel
by kxdjfu
Summary: Class president Ryou Sakushika and vice president Kanade Tachibana work to stop the SSS before it's started. However, one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. Set as a prequel/interquel to Angel Beats! Track Zero. Contains a few SSS member appearances.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue:

The sunset of the schoolyard was quite a sight from the roof. The pair took little notice, though, as always. This was a place for information to pass hands, not for admiring the vista.

After the violet-haired girl with the green bow was finished with her speech, she turned to the boy, asking, "Any questions?"

He stared out toward the track below them, trying to phrase it so it didn't sound stupid. Yuri was always chiding Otonashi about his ignorance. Just the same, he felt he needed an answer.

"So... has the Battlefront ever... fought someone _other _than Angel?" Otonashi asked, trying to mask his step back, remembering all the stupid questions from him, and especially the other members, that ended in beatings.

As she opened her mouth to deliver what seemed to her an obvious answer, she stopped, her features growing softer, contemplating. There was something... something there, amongst the memories that she'd noticed. It was a person... or at least like one...

"There... was someone," she stated, to her own surprise. Otonashi raised his eyebrows expectantly, revoking the step backward.

"Who?" he pressed.

Yuri strained her mind to remember... but very little came. The only thing she saw was fighting, and a lot of it. She could see a boy, about Otonashi's age, but there was no name...

She could see him, though, clear as day. Fighting with Guard Skills and guns alike. He was dressed in a dark uniform, with a dark hood and scarf covering all but his eyes.

She remembered staring down the barrel of a black revolver, and hearing a click...

Yuri shook away that memory, then started, admitting her own ignorance, "I can't remember his name..." Something flashed in her mind, and she quickly covered her answer, "But we did call him something.?

Otonashi waited for a minute, then asked, "So, what was it?"

Yuri turned to him, remembering in detail the fights, his ruthlessness, and his odd protection of Angel, "We called him... 'Archangel'."

Chapter 1:

The boy strode through the halls with confidence, looking around at his people. As student body president, they were, in fact, his people.

He turned to see the small girl with the silver hair and golden eyes, struggling to keep pace, as always, but trying not to make it obvious. He laughed a bit, saying, "Come on, Tachibana, keep up! Never gonna be president if you can't catch me."

Tachibana smiled a bit, jogging to his side. Ryou Sakushika had a long stride, and for someone as small as her, no wonder she was left in the dust. Still, the simple motivation was enough.

Ryou turned to face down a hallway, quickly scanning the students standing there. There were a few "real" students, actual human souls transported to this purgatory school, and quite a few that the "real" students nicknamed "NPCs", realistic emulations of humans, but nothing more.

This was part of the reason he wouldn't take an NPC as a vice president, they couldn't reason like a real person. They could try, Ryou gave them that, but they lacked a certain something in the execution.

He turned around to face Tachibana, comparing her for a second to an NPC. He'd believe she was, if not for the fact that he met her when she first got here. Ryou searched his mind... that must have been a few months ago. Ryou then counted his own time... going on two years.

It wasn't like he didn't know how to leave, far from it. He was here mainly to help others leave. In the back of his mind, though, he could never really come to peace with life...

He pulled himself out of thought, and heard a dull buzz in his ear. Tachibana seemed to have been talking the entire time he was thinking.

"...have to go to the staff meeting after this, okay?" she finished. He waved a hand half-heartedly, a "sure, why not?" gesture. Ryou continued on to his class, leaving Tachibana to her own devices.

He stepped into the classroom, and was met by a glaring face. Sitting in a desk near the back was Yuri Nakamura, hoping that through staring at him, she could set him ablaze.

Nakamura was notorious to all the NPC staff members for her misbehavior and outright rebellious attitude. Ryou knew it was because she knew about this world, more than she let on.

He knew her kind all too well, those who took the brunt of life's anger. They had one traumatizing event that completely shifted their view of the world, and they could never get over it. They always raised some kind of hell when coming to the Afterlife, so Ryou tried to keep tabs on them.

Nakamura was different, though. She wasn't like the other devil-may-care, shoot-from-the-hip souls, she put a method to her madness. Those were the worst, the ones who would plan their chaos.

Ryou sat down in a seat a couple aisles to the right, acting as if he didn't notice her gaze of death. He would have preferred sitting behind her, it made it easier to keep watch without getting called out on it, but she was seated on the back row.

Throughout the class, Ryou was bombarded by half-hearted attempts to anger him. Everything from sabotaging a test to simple spitwads. At the end of class, she stood up, faced Ryou, and said, "God, doesn't anything piss you off?!"

Ryou turned in his seat, put on the biggest smile he could manage, and said calmly, "If you want a date, you don't have to pick on me, just ask."

Nakamura stormed from the room, blushing heavily. A few of the students snickered at the remark, but Ryou didn't take much notice. The teacher was fruitlessly trying to call Nakamura back to her seat from the doorway until class had ended.

Ryou strode out the door before the bell silenced, looking in the direction she stormed off to. It was pointless, he knew, but one could never be too sure. He turned around and made his way through the labyrinth to the student council room and the staff meeting.

Ryou sat there thoroughly uninterested, his head in his hands. Staff meetings were always dull, and he just didn't have it in him to act enthused right now.

On the outside, Ryou was lazily staring about the room, his eyes stopping from time to time to look at nothing in particular. On the inside, he was trying to deduce where Nakamura had fled after class. It was as if someone had an overlay of the school on his eyes, and he was systematically going through every room from the class to the end of the school. Easier said than done, since she'd gone east from the west wing.

After a few more minutes, he looked up to everyone staring at him. Ryou asked the obvious question, "What?"

Tachibana chimed in next to him, "Do you think it's a good idea?"

Ryou, in his utter ignorance of the situation, tried to cover, "Well, what's your opinion, Tachibana?"

She turned and looked across the table in thought, then said, "Well, it seems like a good idea to me."

"Then what the hell, why not?" Ryou answered, glad no one realized he didn't hear a word of it, but still unsettled from agreeing to something blindly. They all nodded in agreement, which settled him a little more.

The others continued on in the unintelligible prattle while Ryou let his mind return to the blueprint only he could see. He started ruling out specific rooms, such as the cafeteria, because there was nothing of prominent use there. At first, he thought she would just head off to her dormitory or just somewhere to relax, but this didn't feel right. Something about her demeanor told of a mission, something that needed doing. Considering it was Nakamura, it couldn't be good.

Ryou let his mind wander on this until there was no point in wandering further, then he wondered what it was he'd agreed to with the student council, but this was but a mere distraction. All of the people in the room, save for Tachibana and himself, were soulless NPCs. It wasn't likely they'd oust him or plan to demolish the school, it literally wasn't in them.

He lazily turned to Tachibana, who sat upright and attentive, taking in every word as if it were scripture. _She is so much better suited to this than I am,_ Ryou thought, giving a small laugh. Tachibana looked at him quizzically, but the NPCs took no notice, and Ryou dismissed her unspoken question with the wave of a hand.

After a long while, running out of things to think about half-way through the meeting, everyone was dismissed. Ryou stayed behind, calling for Tachibana to remain with him.

She complied, walking back to the table and sitting in the chair to his right. Ryou sat in thought for a couple of minutes, then turned to Tachibana and said, "Nakamura stormed out of the classroom today, and I would like to find out where she's gone."

Tachibana cocked her head slightly, saying, "Wouldn't she just return to her room?"

Ryou shook his head, "She went in the completely opposite direction. I think she's up to something again."

Tachibana finished his thought before he did, "And you would like me to find her?"

Ryou smiled a bit, "If it's not too much trouble."

With just the hint of a smile in return, she got up from her chair and left, with Ryou following suit.

Back in his dormitory, Ryou waited, his favorite chair squeaking slightly as he rocked in it. Of course, the office-style swivel chair wasn't built to rock, but Ryou had used this chair ever since he arrived in this world. It wasn't going to give out now.

He checked the clock again. 7:39 p.m.. He had sent Tachibana to find Nakamura over four hours ago, and she hadn't returned yet. Ryou tried reasoning, but gave it up an hour ago. Was she still looking? No, Tachibana knows when to quit. Would she forget to report back? Hardly, she never forgot to check in. So what was holding her up?

Ryou stared at the door, as if she would magically materialize behind it and enter. After a few minutes, his dry eyes so kindly reminded him to blink by burning furiously. He often forgot to do such things like blink or even breathe when he was anxious, and it was none too pleasant when his body reminded him of it.

The handle on the door clicked, swinging it open slowly. Tachibana entered with a defeated look on her face. Ryou knew why, her very entrance telling the story for her, but she always confirmed it in words.

"I'm sorry, Ryou," she said, her voice seeming smaller than usual.

Ryou leaned forward in his chair a bit, motioning for her to sit down. "Wanna tell me what happened?"

Tachibana obediently sat on the bed nearby, gathering her thoughts. It had only been a request, not an order, to share the experience, yet Tachibana spoke.

"I searched the school for about an hour and a half, and I found Nakamura walking out of a room, acting suspicious. I followed her for a while, then she turned a few corners and disappeared. I searched for her, but she'd just... vanished."

Ryou rubbed his chin, "Well, what about the room?"

Tachibana looked up, "Stranger still, I couldn't find the room. It had vanished, too."

"Are you sure you didn't just forget where it was?"

"Positive. I was in the same hall, looking at the same wall, but there was no room and no door. It was just... gone."

**Author's note:**

I made this because nowhere in the anime/manga/novels does it say HOW Kanade learned to do what she does. It seemed a bit unnatural for her to just know how to program such complicated things. No matter who you are, what you do, and how well you do it, there's always a mentor that taught you how.

I may not have very... consistent updates on this, but I assure you, there WILL be updates. I don't plan on scrapping this project, especially when it seems I'm the first to write on this premise. Probably not true, but I'm the first I've seen. :D


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The next day, Tachibana took Ryou to the place the room had been. In front of them stood nothing more than a blank wall. Ryou was unsure what he'd expected to find, and he was certain Tachibana wasn't lying. She was unnervingly straightforward about such things.

Tachibana turned to Ryou, looking a little concerned. The bell for class rang ten minutes ago, and here they were, staring at a wall. Every so often, a teacher or administrator would ask what they were doing, and Ryou simply waved them off without a word.

"Ryou... what do you hope to accomplish here?"

Ryou kept staring at the wall, answering, "Maybe it's some secret of the school... or maybe Nakamura made it... or... I don't know." Ryou started to slump over, "I just... we're close, I can feel it. Yet we're gonna get held back by a _wall_?"

Tachibana looked as if she wanted to say something to reassure him, but couldn't find the words. Ryou couldn't blame her... he couldn't find them, either.

After a couple more minutes, Ryou turned away from the wall and started off to class, Tachibana calling a half-hearted "goodbye" after him. Chances were he wouldn't make it back to class before it ended, but he didn't really care. The classes seemed even more pointless now, standing alongside everything else.

About twenty feet from the door, the bell rang. Students flooded from the classrooms, but Ryou pressed on to the last class. _Guess it's just habit_, he thought.

Then he saw her. Nakamura emerged from the room, turned from him, and started walking. She looked rather empty-handed, he noticed. She always carried some kind of notebook with her, but... it was nowhere to be found.

He rushed into the room and went to her desk. Sure enough, there it was. One yellow spiral notebook sitting in the desk, whispering all of Nakamura's little secrets to him.

_Including that damned room..._ he realized happily.

Ryou quickly scooped up the notebook and stuffed it into his jacket. Of course, the teacher would take no notice. NPCs never noticed anything particularly unusual, like a student stealing a notebook as if it were a precious gem.

He rushed from the room to his next class so fast it must have been a record. Every administrator and teacher he passed was furious, but Ryou didn't care. He wasn't going to wait for these answers any longer.

He swung into the classroom door, rounded an aisle near the window, and landed in a seat at the back row, which proceeded to slide back a few inches from the force. Ryou flung open the first page, and started reading.

The first few pages were plans for recruitment, stating she already had one "useless" ally. The next page was a sort of insignia: a red and yellow shield emblazoned with "SSS" across the front. Underneath, it read "Shinda Sekai Sensen (Underworld Battlefront), Rebels Against the God". This struck Ryou as a bit odd. Why would anyone even _think_ of rebelling against God, let alone _try _it?

Shaking the unanswered question aside, he continued to read. The majority of the pages were just plans and things needed to execute them, most of the checklists showed she had no resources. Reassuring, but not exactly the prime information Ryou was expecting.

The farther he read on, the more he realized Nakamura knew about as much about the room as he did. As far as she was concerned, it was just some room no one else entered, and she used it for planning. She also had floor plans for the room, apparently hoping to turn it into a headquarters for her group. Ryou silently noted to keep someone out in that hall at all times, just to make sure.

With another flip of the page, his heart sunk. The rest of the pages were torn out, bits of paper still hanging from the spiral binding, mocking his false hope. He slammed the notebook shut and stuffed it into his desk.

The teacher had begun class, but Ryou never paid attention, and today would be no different. He had bigger fish to fry than calculus...

Ryou approached the bench that Tachibana seemed to love so much. It was their meeting spot, and she'd always said how much she liked that particular bench. It wouldn't have been as strange if she'd said she liked the location, or the view it provided, but it was just the bench.

He sat down next to her, wondering what was so important about what he was sitting on, and held out the notebook. She took it tentatively, asking without asking what it was.

Ryou faced forward, "It belonged to Nakamura."

Tachibana cocked her head to one side, "Belonged?"

He smiled a bit, knowing what she was asking, again without really asking it. "She abandoned it. And you know how much I hate desk litter."

She simply stared at him in disapproval, obviously equating reclamation of abandoned items as stealing.

Ryou put his hands up in a defensive gesture for a second, then asked, "Are you gonna read it, or would you prefer I write 'Thou shalt not steal' a hundred times on a chalkboard?"

Tachibana continued staring, as if contemplating the punishment. _You've got to be kidding me, she's considering it?_ Ryou thought.

She opened the notebook, but held her stare for just a little while longer, then turned to the book and started reading.

Ryou cracked a half-hearted smile and said, "Spoiler alert, she didn't know about our ghost room, either."

Tachibana continued reading, either to prove him wrong, or see what else might be of any use to them. Ryou guessed it was mainly the latter, but it was always hard to tell what her motivations were.

She looked up after a few minutes of reading, her face ever so slightly betraying her disappointment, and asked, "So, what now?"

The question Ryou had been dreading. What now? Truth was, he had no idea. The whole ordeal with Nakamura was just grasping at a bunch of straws, hoping you catch something you can use. He had to remind himself every day what they were working toward. It wasn't to throw her into detention, or punish her, those only happened when she did something harmful or destructive. Ryou's goal was to bring her to peace, to help her come to terms with the pain of her life.

_Seems like we're going about this completely wrong..._ Ryou admitted, _but if we are, then how do we do this right?_

Tachibana saw the troubled look on Ryou's face and looked down at her feet. She was very empathatic with him, strange since she showed little emotion to anyone else. Both she and Ryou knew what it would mean to have friends other than each other.

Ryou got up from the bench after about five minutes of contemplation, "Let me sleep on it, I'll come up with something."

She simply nodded, got up, and walked away. _The girl's an enigma wrapped in a shroud._

Ryou sat staring at his computer screen blankly. It was half past ten, and he'd thought of absolutely nothing. The computer usually gave him something to go on, as if it were the third member of their little party, but tonight it simply stared back at him, mirroring the blankness.

He clicked on random files, hoping _something _would lead him _somewhere_. A web browser, a half-finished music project, a new story he'd finished a week ago, a bunch of pictures, a... wait, what is that?

Ryou examined the loading screen for the application he'd just clicked. It was deep blue with light blue wisps flowing through it. In a lighter blue, it read "Angel Player 0.8 Beta". He clicked the properties of it, and went to the description.

"Angel Player Beta, a prototype application used for transmogrification and... self-augmentation?" Ryou read aloud. He assumed it was some sort of game before, due to the word "Player", but this... this was unreal. No simple program could allow you to change yourself in such a literal way.

The window opened up, showing a few different windows. One had a wireframe model of a man, and next to that was an empty application bar. Below it was a panel for writing code.

_Finally, something I can do, _Ryou thought happily. In his past life, he had some experience in programming, but never really had much use for it. Mostly, he used it to make new and different sounds with his music programs. Now, it seemed, that piece was falling into play as well. He opened a new project file, which promptly asked for a name:

"_ Skills"

_Well, if this is self-augmentation, it should be something I know, _Ryou reasoned. He clicked the window and filled in the space:

"Sound Skills"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Tachibana walked toward the field slowly, rubbing her eyes. "Ryou, you realize it's eight-forty in the morning?" she said softly.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Ryou felt a little bad that he woke her up, but this was way too cool. He couldn't force himself to wait.

She sat down on her most favorite of benches and tried to stave off sleep while Ryou prepared. Truthfully, he wasn't very convinced it would work at all, but what was the harm in trying? The program would only let him add things to himself, not remove them, a sort of safeguard against accidental... well, needless to say, it was reassuring that wouldn't happen.

Ryou took a few steps back, holding out his right arm. "It's this program I told you about, Angel Player? The one I thought was a cheesy role-playing game?"

Tachibana nodded slowly, still rubbing her eyes. He was losing her.

"Well, I was wrong. Check this out." He held his arm as steady as he could, then focused on the skill itself, just as it had told him to. Ryou closed his eyes and said, "Sound Skill: Crest".

The words sounded somewhat foreign, as if some vocal synthesizer were saying it instead, with a strange mechanical echo to it. After he'd spoken the phrase, an iridescent blue circle formed around his wrist, suspended about a centimeter from it. Part of it began to stretch forward, as if someone were physically pulling it, until it formed a hollow neon blade floating just above his wrist.

Ryou looked over to Tachibana, surprised at how quickly she seemed to wake up. Still staring at the blade, she opened her mouth to ask the obvious questions, but Ryou beat her to the punch.

"This is what Angel Player _really _does. It's self-augmentation, which means you can make all sorts of programs to give yourself different abilities and weapons." He turned the blade a bit, noticing just how blunt he'd made it, "Truthfully, this is more of a 'hello world' type of program."

Ryou looked back at her, saying, "I can teach you how to use it, if you like. I was going to see if there was a program manual in the library to help me understand it better, but I figured I'd show you first."

Tachibana nodded excitedly, leading the way to the library. Ryou recalled the blade and followed. He couldn't blame her for the enthusiasm, knowing he'd do the same thing.

Or, rather, DID the same thing. Ryou let a mischievous smile escape as he recalled the hefty tome sitting patiently on the desk in his dorm.

Back at Ryou's dorm, Tachibana dropped to the bed, giving an ever-so-slight scowl just as she'd done since they'd arrived at the library. He realized she hated it when he could trick her, but that only made it more amusing when he did. Contempt seemed to be the one emotion she was good at.

Flipping the pages quickly, Ryou stated, "Over a thousand pages of know-how to use this strange little program. A lot of complexity hidden in such an elegantly simple program." He chuckled a bit, "If I ever met the guy who made this thing, I don't know if I'd shake his hand or punch him in the face. Maybe both, just to be safe."

Tachibana stared at the wall, pretending not to hear him. Every time, she would stare off into space and ignore him until he apologized. Thankfully, she meant it more as an act of humility than apology.

Ryou dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together, "Please, oh, PLEASE, forgive me for my transgressions! I can change!" he begged, a fake choke in his voice for good measure. Tachibana looked at him and cracked a small smile.

_Works every time, _Ryou thought victoriously, returning to his chair. He knew there was no need to repeat himself, she'd only pretended to ignore him, but he always doubled back as a small form of revenge.

"I know you're a quick learner, but be careful what you try out. This thing has safeguards, but there are always ways things can - and usually will - go wrong with coding. You may just find a way around one of the safeguards on accident."

Tachibana nodded, looking a little worried now. That was good. Ryou knew caution was a priority with this program, and now she knew it too.

Ryou clicked the application on his computer, getting up from his chair. "Feel free to check it out, if you want. Just... don't add anything to my profile."

He was at the door when Tachibana asked, "Where are you going?"

Ryou turned, saying, "Nowhere important... just let yourself out when you're done, okay?" He turned back, closing the door behind him.

_Now, let's see how this new skill works..._

Ryou started down the hall, walking at first, but soon he was in full sprint. About halfway down the hall, Ryou focused on the experimental skill and said, in the same oddly mechanical echo, "Sound Skill: Legato".

Immediately, his pace quickened further. His sprint speed tripled, and he rounded the corner in a split second, if only narrowly. _Note: program a skill for heightened reflexes._

Ryou rounded a few more corners, then vaulted off a railing onto a low rooftop. He landed in a roll, quickly recovering and jumping from here as well. He hit the ground running, quickly skimming the perimeter of the school. Despite a few narrow misses, he was able to effectively navigate with this inhuman speed. It was difficult, but doable.

_Let's see if my other hunch was right..._

Ryou swerved wide from the school wall, turning back to attack the roof he'd jumped from. When he was a few feet from it, he leapt, hoping to catch the edge sitting about ten feet from the ground. Instead, he tucked his legs in to keep from shattering his knees against the very same edge.

Smiling widely at the success of this new skill, he leapt at the railing he vaulted from, catching it a good seventeen feet from the rooftop he'd jumped off of. He pulled himself up with surprising force and ran back to his dorm before silently willing the power away.

Ryou allowed himself a small moment of victory before he reentered, looking back at the supposed absurdity of the skill when he made it. He had made Legato as a test to augment natural ability as opposed to adding something that wasn't there to begin with. He had expected uncontrollable speed, and never even dreamed of the hyper-jump it seemed to grant. It seemed to grant a small boost to physical strength as well, reflecting on the ease of pulling himself over the railing.

Ryou put his hand on the doorknob, but stopped for a second, considering telling Tachibana about this new success. _No, it's far from perfect, and anything but beginner-level. I'll teach her only if and when she needs it._

He reentered the dorm to find Tachibana staring deeply into the screen, fully engrossed in the program. She seemed completely unaware of his return, so he simply flopped onto the bed and waited. She ignored this, too.

Ryou rolled up onto one elbow and reached over to the open door. He got a firm grip, pulled it back, then swung as hard as he could. The door flew shut with a resounding BANG!, making Tachibana jump clear out of the chair onto the floor. Ryou rolled onto his back again, struggling to suppress the onslaught of laughter that threatened to consume him.

He failed.

Tachibana began to fume as Ryou continued to laugh, a cue he took to laugh harder. Eventually, her anger subsided and she started to laugh as well, or at least what counted as laughter with Tachibana. Contempt was the only emotion she could really pull off, everything else was a little dulled down.

Eventually, Ryou's amusement subsided, and he pulled himself up to sit on the side of the bed. "So, what do you think?"

"It wasn't necessarily funny. Laughter is infectious."

Ryou mimed taking notes, looking back up, "All well and good, but what about the program? What about that?"

Tachibana turned back to the computer, considering the lines of code, "It's rather compicated. I'm surprised you could make anything from it, really."

Ryou smiled a bit at the compliment, then said, "The offer's still on the table. If you wanna learn it, I can teach you... probably."

"Probably?"

"You said it yourself, it's compicated. I don't know it all yet, and I doubt I ever will. I can teach you enough, though. Who knows? Maybe you'll figure it out before it's all over."

Tachibana looked at him sideways, "Before what's all over?"

Ryou reflected on the words. _Why did I say that? "Before it's all over"? _The answer eluded him, and he left the question unanswered for now. Who knew, maybe he'd find out before it was all over.

**Author's Note:**

I'm starting to stray into unfamiiar territory a bit here, so the updates will most likely take a while, at least for the next few chapters. Some things I have planned, some I don't, and this is one of the latter. We're also getting a little closer to crossing paths with Track Zero, so that should help a bit.

While I'm at that, be sure to leave a review telling what you like, or what you believe needs improvement. Constructive criticism, please, this is my first FanFiction (well, first I've let others read :D) and I want to know how I'm doing.

Thanks in advance!

-D.J.


End file.
